Greetings all!
My Hunter fan pull-chain ceiling switch went bad (it would go "off-medium-medium-low" on successive pulls rather than "off-high-medium-low") and Hunter's customer service was kind enough to send an replacement switch unit which exactly matches the original. The name on the switch unit is Well Tec.
This switch does not appear to be openable -- there are no screws holding the unit together, and although there are three plastic prongs which attach the top and bottom halves of the unit together, these prongs do not seem like they are intended to be pulled open to dissamble the unit. Am I correct in assuming that this unit is indeed unopenable, and that I must snip the wires where they go into the dead unit, and then stab the wires into the appropriate notches on the new unit?
Personally, I don't like this "unopenable" electrical unit paradigm for two reasons:
(1) The snipped wires may not stab into the new slots very elegantly. I read a post elsewhere where someone said that they had a great deal of difficulty getting the wires to go into the slots, and a respondent to that post suggested it may be necessary to solder the wire ends to make them stiffer.
(2) I fortunately seem to have a pretty good chance of putting the right colored wire in the right slots since the switch units are identical, but I do know that many people seem to wire things up incorrectly the first time, and they then have to redo it. With an unopenable system, one can snip off the wire and try again if necessary, but they would have to purchase another replacement switch.
Any advice is much appreciated!
Chuck